PC Firm to Unveil 64-Bit Laptops
Seeking a new niche in personal computers, budget computer maker EMachines Inc. plans to introduce today the first laptops from a major PC maker powered by high-capacity 64-bit chips.
The once-struggling Irvine-based company will unveil two laptops with microprocessors that run at 64 bits, crunching twice as much data at a time as the much more widespread 32-bit computer chips.
Personal computers that use 64-bit microprocessors appeal to users who play complex computer games with vivid graphics and to engineers and other professionals who need high-powered capability for crunching data.
Such computers began to go on sale last year with desktop models from Apple Computer Inc. and other manufacturers using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system and are expected to gain popularity in the next couple of years as more programs are written for 64 bits.
The new laptops from privately held EMachines run on an Athlon 64 processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and have a 60-gigabyte hard drive, DVD reader and CD reader/burner, WiFi wireless connectivity and a large, 15.4-inch wide-aspect screen. The M6805 will sell for $1,449 after rebates, and the M6807, which includes a DVD burner, will be $1,549 after rebates.
Hard-core computer gamers, who often lug their entire desktop machines to various places to take part in gaming competitions, will welcome 64 bits in a portable package, said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with the technology consulting firm Insight64 in Saratoga, Calif.
The new Emachines laptop also will appeal to others.
“For anybody doing numerically intensive computing -- architects or engineers, who may move from one work site to another, maybe stay at a work site for weeks at a time, and need to do some heavy-duty work away from the office -- this would be a great machine for that,” Brookwood said.
Known best for selling affordable PCs that begin at $399, EMachines, then losing money, was delisted from Nasdaq in 2001.
It has been profitable for the last nine quarters, however, and in the fourth quarter of last year was the fourth-largest PC vendor in the U.S., after Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and IBM Corp., according to IDC, a technology market research company.
